


Floodgates

by LittleLinor



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 12:03:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17304251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLinor/pseuds/LittleLinor
Summary: Ibuki comes home to a warm meal and a conversation he didn't expect





	Floodgates

**Author's Note:**

> These two are idiots
> 
> (post-canon by a couple of years)

When Ibuki reached his apartment that evening, he was unsurprised to find the place lit and warm with the scent of a freshly cooked dinner.  
They hadn't made any particular plans to meet up, but Chrono did have his key and showed up unannounced regularly, now that he knew it didn't bother Ibuki, and regularly he'd come home to warm meals or Chrono just doing his schoolwork or reworking his deck on his low table. Once or twice, he'd found him asleep; getting to watch him had carried a slight edge of guilt, fanned by the echoes of old accusations, but it had felt peaceful, and those nights he hadn't lingered, and unless Chrono woke up immediately, curled up next to him, taking comfort in his anchoring presence. It wasn't quite the same as when Chrono held him to sleep, wrapped around him from behind, but it was close, and had its own quiet charm.  
Chrono was sitting on the floor next to the table, with a glass of probably cold green tea in one hand and his phone in the other, typing away. He looked up with a smile as Ibuki entered, but his smile looked a little tired; Ibuki quickly took off his shoes and jacket and came to kneel next to him for a kiss. Chrono, as expected, reached behind his neck and under his hair to pull him down and closer for it, a comfortable and familiar gesture that made him feel at home, at ease. In his place.  
Ibuki had never thought himself a sensual person, but he clung to sensations sometimes, out of habit or just out of taste, and there was something to being kissed that always made him come back for more. If he had been more dramatic, he would have called himself addicted.  
When Chrono released him, fingers lingering tantalisingly against the side of his neck, he found himself wishing he would just pull him back in without a word.  
His mind was on the edge of bolder images when Chrono chuckled and pulled back further.  
“Welcome home. How was your day.”  
“Tiring. I almost had another meeting this evening; it's a good thing they postponed it.”  
“Mmm, good thing indeed.” He smiled. “I'd have waited, though. I was planning on staying the night, if that's all right.”  
Considering the time, Ibuki was expecting it anyway, but since Chrono was asking, he nodded.  
“Maybe I should give you access to my calendar,” he mumbled. Finding Chrono when he came home was always a nice surprise, but he didn't like to think about Chrono having to wait alone if he came home late.  
Chrono chuckled and shook his head.  
“Nah, it's fine. Not that I'd mind,” he said with a teasing smile, “but if I have to wait because I didn't warn, it'll be my own fault. I can just ask ahead, you know.”  
“… that's true.”  
“I just…” He leaned his head against Ibuki's shoulder. “… just wanted to see you, is all. It was just an impulse thing.”  
Ibuki carefully shifted to sit rather than kneel, to offer him a more comfortable support.  
“Is something the matter? You seem tired.”  
“Oh. Uh…” He sighed. “… it's nothing important.”  
“You're the one who tells me not to dismiss things that trouble me because they don't seem important enough,” Ibuki pointed out.  
Chrono chuckled.  
“Yeah but you're on a whole other level.” He paused. “Fine. I, uh… this is embarrassing,” he sighed.  
“Chrono, you know better than to think I will find whatever it is shameful.”  
“I know, but!” He pressed his forehead against Ibuki's shoulder, then exhaled suddenly. “… I got confessed to today.”  
Ibuki's brain ground to a halt.  
“One of my classmates asked if she could talk to me after class… I thought maybe she wanted to start playing or something but then she wanted not to be overheard, and…” He sighed. “Maybe I should've seen it coming when she insisted on being alone, but… how was I supposed to see _that_ coming!?”  
“… so what did you tell her?”  
“I almost blurted out 'I have a boyfriend', that's what.” He shifted his head a little, no longer pressing his eyes against Ibuki's shoulder but looking down and pressing the top of his forehead instead, the swirl of his hair pulling with the motion. “In the end I managed to say 'there's someone I like' instead but it was a close one. I swear my brain just stopped working when she said that.”  
Despite himself, Ibuki felt himself relax. It was stupid, he shouldn't be jealous of a teenage girl that Chrono didn't seem to be more than vaguely acquainted with in the first place, but the possibility of someone younger, someone more _appropriate_ being offered to Chrono (and the more acceptable gender, too) had woken a kneejerk fear in his gut that had everything to do with his own lack of self-esteem.  
Realistically speaking, he knew Chrono didn't have much romantic or intimate interest in girls like most boys his age had, and that he was much too steadfast a person to flutter around to a new conquest like a butterfly, but a part of him had always whispered that he wasn't the right partner for him, and something like this was just what it needed to reer its ugly head.  
Thankfully, Chrono immediately claiming their bond did a lot to shut its voice.  
Even if they had decided not to make the relationship public (it wasn't a secret, as all of their friends and Chrono's aunt knew, but they were prominent enough figures in the Vanguard scene that it being official would cause a lot of gossip and interfere with their lives, and he worried about Chrono's in particular), that it had been Chrono's first reflex felt… satisfying.  
“Was it really that surprising?” Ibuki asked, amusement gradually replacing his first instinctive fear.  
“Yes!? I mean, why would anyone be interested in me?”  
Ibuki shot him a look of disbelief. Chrono, who'd finally looked up again, blushed and looked away once more.  
“You're a special case,” he mumbled. “We have history and stuff. I don't really _know_ her.”  
“Well, you _are_ a handsome young man.”  
“Don't tease me,” he grumbled half-heartedly.  
“I mean it.” Chrono looked up at him. This time, it was Ibuki who felt his ears grow a little warm. “Pure looks aside, you make a dashing sight, especially when fighting. Sometimes just watching you takes my breath away.”  
Chrono's eyes widened.  
“Wh…”  
“You're also a very kind person,” Ibuki continued, trying his best to hide his own embarrassment. “It's not surprising for others to be drawn to that.”  
“S-stop it,” Chrono sputtered, hiding his face in Ibuki's shoulder again. “I get it…” And then, more quietly: “… thank you.”  
“I'm only telling the truth,” Ibuki said, the warmth of Chrono's body against his spreading into him and relaxing him.  
Most of the time, it was that feeling of being caught breathless that dominated, when he was with Chrono. Seeing him act cute was more rare, but it was endearing… and, honestly, fun.  
A brushing touch to his hand made him jump a little. Chrono's fingers intertwined with his own, gripping his hand securely, almost possessively.  
“… Chrono?”  
Silently, Chrono straightened a little and reached for him, pulling him into a kiss. It was gentle, and yet there was something resolute about it, a declaration and a promise. Ibuki's spine fluttered with a shiver as Chrono's breath brushed against his lips, and then he was kissing him again, and all Ibuki wanted to do was melt. Melt into it and into his arms, let him lay claim to him, keep breathing with the rhythm he set, and open his eyes only to that brilliant, consuming green staring at him.   
Another kiss, and another, and he was all but collapsing into him, keeping himself up by the strength of his one free arm. The only thing he wanted more, in that moment, was for Chrono to just press him down and remove the need for that support altogether.  
It kept running through his mind, like his body itself had imagination, in a way that he'd never imagined could be possible aside from nightmares. His skin shivered with ghost touches of Chrono's hands, caresses to his neck, to his chest, tangles and pulls into his hair, hard ground against his back. He could almost feel it, and he wanted… he wanted…   
“Chrono,” he breathed, light and pleading.  
Chrono's fingers rubbed into the back of his scalp, into his nape, a smile forming against Ibuki's lips before he kissed him again. And Ibuki whimpered.  
He had already decided, a while ago, that if it ever came to it, if Chrono ever wanted to bring their intimacy to more physical grounds, he would do it for his sake. Now? If Chrono brought things there, he was fully ready to beg for it.  
The concept of desire, that had been so alien for years, was finally starting to take a tangible shape.   
Another kiss and he was ready to pant, his lungs and head tingling. He gasped against Chrono's lips, and Chrono's hand tightened in his hair, and his entire body shuddered, and—  
Chrono drew in a little breath, blinked, and released his grip on his hair.  
“I—sorry.”  
Ibuki tried to get his shaky breath under control, the ability to talk much too far away.  
“Sorry, I, uh, I got carried away,” Chrono mumbled, pulling further back but taking hold of his shoulder as if to hold him stable.  
“… it's fine,” Ibuki breathed, breathing slowly and waiting for his vision to come properly back into focus. And then, once he could actually look at him, he allowed himself a tiny smile. “… I didn't exactly mind.”  
Chrono's face turned bright red.  
“Oh.”  
For a few suspended breaths, Ibuki actually thought that the dam would give, that the passion evident in Chrono's body and eyes would spill, crash over him with the same wave-like motion that he commanded in fights. Unrelenting current, unescapable weight, a kind of beauty that burned like the sun. And then he looked away, fidgeting, and got up suddenly, walking the three steps to what served as Ibuki's kitchen.  
“A-anyway. You must be hungry. Wash your hands so we can eat, okay?”  
He lifted the lid on his pot and tasted the contents, then moved to get his rice. Ibuki took a few moments to ground himself. He could still feel Chrono's hand in his hair, the pull at the back of his head, the pressuring kiss on his lips.   
Part of him knew he'd be replaying them later in his own mind, letting the feeling of _want_ in all its novelty and alienness settle inside him, coming to terms with it, with this new intimacy that brought not disgust and horror, but warmth. But for now…   
For now, he could enjoy what they already had, this comfortable domesticity and partnership between them. And besides, Chrono had told him to wash his hands.  
He stood, and joined Chrono at the sink to take care of it, then take plates off the drying rack.  
“… if you'd rather make it public…” he said quietly.  
Chrono stayed silent for a moment, then shook his head.  
“No… I think it _is_ more simple this way for now, but…” He turned towards him, his smile soft yet blinding. “One day. We'll have to set people know eventually, after all. If we move in together…”  
It was its own kind of promise, and Ibuki hadn't known he could feel so light and yet so grounded at the same time before now.  
But it was a feeling he could get used to.


End file.
